Of Dragons and Elves I Know Little
by Asviloka
Summary: A radical group led by the mysterious Galbatorix seeks to destroy the fragile balance of power that has existed on Earth for centuries. The elves' secrecy at risk, and now their queen's daughter is missing; the only clue, the stone she vowed to protect with her life. With most elves unwilling to risk hastening exposure, Islanzadi turns to the one human who may be able to help. AU
1. Chapter 1

I could tell before she even stepped into my office, she wasn't even remotely human. She was tall, in a supermodel and then some kind of way, unnaturally so. Though she couldn't have been much more than my height, she seemed taller. Her hair was rich, vibrant raven black, done in an elegant draping style that made me think of nobility trying to look casual. Her face was just a little too perfect, the proportions off just enough to seem uncanny but somehow beautiful instead of repulsive.

Then of course there were the ears. Pointed at the tips, not rounded. Clearly she was making no attempts to disguise who she was. And that intrigued me. She was no Sidhe, no fae come to ensnare me. No vampire either, didn't have the right aura for it. But I could sense something, something deep and hidden within her, as though she were an ember of power wrapped in quiet velvet.

Her clothing was simple and elegant in style, but made entirely from red swan feathers.

I cleared my throat, which seemed suddenly dry. In my experience, powerful and inhuman women were rarely good news, and even more rarely good for me in particular. But she'd come to my office, presumably for my help, and never let it be said that Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden ever turned away a woman in distress just because she was unnaturally beautiful and not quite human.

I usually waited until they tried to kill me. At that point, I don't care how much distress you're in, unless you have a really _really_ good excuse you're not getting help from me.

"I'm Harry Dresden," I said, gesturing toward the nicer of the chairs seated before my desk. "Please, have a seat."

She did so, moving with a lithe unconscious grace that would have put most fae to shame - at least if they were pretending to be human. There was nothing of pretense about this woman; what she was, she was. And she made no attempt to hide it.

"I understand that you deal in matters of the supernatural, Mr. Dresden," she said. Her voice was firm, accustomed to command. I instinctively sat up straighter, giving her complete attention without conscious decision. "My daughter is missing, and I believe she's been kidnapped."

It was only then that I noticed the lines on her face, the weight that seemed to hide behind her beautiful eyes - which I took care not to meet. Though I'd at first thought she couldn't be more than thirty, now I could see that she must be much, much older. Then again, it was always hard to tell with non-humans. They had ways of not lining up with our expectations.

"And you believe it was a supernatural being that did it?"

She reached into her handbag and drew out a large, smooth blue stone, placing it upon my desk. It was as long as my forearm, round and polished like a sapphire, veined with white and purple streaks.

"This was her charge," she said. "It returned to me by magic, and from the remnants of its surroundings I could tell it had come from a place of great heat and turmoil. She would never have let this pass from her care unless she were in the gravest peril."

"Are you sure she's alive?" I asked.

She shook her head. "There is no way to be sure, but if I'm right about who is responsible, they will want to keep her alive as long as she can be of use to them."

I shivered. That sort of thing always got to me.

"Alright," I said, "What can you tell me about your daughter, or the people you believe responsible for her abduction?"

"Her name is Arya, I do not have an image of her. I haven't seen her in decades. She has dark hair like me, a fiery spirit, and a stubborn heart. She undertook the task of carrying and escorting this," she gestured to the gemstone, "against my explicit wishes."

"Adventurous?"

"Young. She will learn better in time, but for the present I'm more concerned with her life and safety than her maturity."

I nodded. "And what do you know about her abductors?"

"Very little. I believe they are part of an extremist group who believe humans deserve an equal share in our power - perhaps more than equal. But I know only the name of their leader; or, rather, what their leader chooses to call himself."

I waited, but she seemed hesitant to speak.

"And that is?"

"Galbatorix," she said, and the word _felt_ heavy in my ears, echoed in my mind, resonating against my innermost being. I understood at once why she'd hesitated to say it. That name carried with it more power than half the wizards of the White Council could claim.

"And you don't know anything more about them? How your daughter came to their attention?"

"Because she was carrying this, of course," she said, gesturing again to the blue stone.

I hesitated, stared at the gemstone. "Can I keep this for now? If it's the last thing she touched, I may be able to trace her from its resonance."

"Treat it with the utmost care," my client said, after only a moment's hesitation. "That is unique and irreplaceable. I trust that you are capable of protecting it, wizard Dresden?"

I hoped so. My track record with protecting objects wasn't always the cleanest. But it was the best clue I was likely to get.

Aloud, I said, "Of course, I will treat it with the greatest care. If it is at all within my power to do, I will get your daughter back."

She rose smoothly to her feet, seeming too tall for her size. "Guard that stone with your life. It is worth far more than either of us."

I swallowed. "Yes ma'am. Understood."

She turned to depart.

"I didn't get your name," I said.

"Queen Islanzadi of the Elves," she replied, turning to smile at me.

"Elves, huh?" That would explain the power I sensed from her. Her aura had no taste of the never-never about it, but hadn't seemed any more human than the rest of her.

"You probably haven't heard of us except in stories, but we are very real."

 _Queen_. A powerful, inhuman queen, asking for my help. I was reminded uncomfortably of Maebh, the fae queen under whose capricious thumb I'd toiled for far too long.

My mouth felt dry again and I glanced longingly at the only drink in the office, the dregs of the morning's pot of coffee. I'd forgotten to turn off the heater again, and it had concentrated to something that would be unspeakably dreadful to drink.

I forced my thoughts away from the past. Islanzadi was a wholly different sort, and I didn't need to be afraid of her.

 _Just keep telling yourself that, Harry._

I cleared my throat. "So, Islanzadi. How should I get in touch with you if I have anything to report?"

"I will return to you in a week's time. If you have not found Arya by then, I doubt you ever will." She nodded once more to the gemstone. "And protect that with your life."

Very important stone. Got it. I was starting to think it was a mistake to keep it, however useful it may be to tracking down Arya.

"I will," I assured her.

She nodded, then swept from the room. For an older woman, she was remarkably attractive. Even knowing she wasn't human, my eyes were drawn to her lithe movements without my conscious consent.

I waited until her footsteps had faded completely into the distance - not that it took long, she moved quite softly for someone so imposing - then locked the office. I had to think.

I knew more about elves than she'd guessed. They aren't human, but they aren't truly supernatural beings either. They're mortal, however long-lived, and they do have souls. Most elves stayed to themselves, preferring to live in isolation, usually deep forests where humans rarely visited. Magic, to them, is innate and natural.

All that was merely hearsay, however. I'd never met an elf before, nor had any other wizard of my acquaintance. They were elusive, mysterious beings.

Which, unfortunately, meant I had no base of knowledge to go off of when determining whether she was legit or if this was some trick or trap. We also hadn't gotten around to discussing my payment, which would probably become an important issue sooner or later. But if there's one thing I knew about people who went around with titles like 'Queen' it was that they could pretty much afford anything they wanted.

Why she wanted me, now that was a question. As far as I knew, there were no elves in Chicago. Surely she could have found a wizard closer to wherever she lived. And elves had enough magic of their own, I couldn't imagine why an elf _queen_ would come to a human wizard like myself for help even if I was the nearest.

It smelled like a setup to me. Either that or politics. And neither was anything I wanted to get mixed up in. But, who was I kidding? A beautiful woman tells me her daughter was abducted, I'm not going to just walk away.

So I gathered my notes, picked up the surprisingly light gemstone, and set out for my lab.

* * *

I didn't have to call Bob. The skull awakened the moment I set foot through the door, eye sockets glowing furiously, and he started screaming.

"WHAT ARE YOU THINKING? HARRY WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!"

"Good evening to you too, Bob," I said, trying to remember what I'd done recently that could have set him off. I hadn't been particularly permissive with him lately, but neither could I recall anything especially restrictive. I hadn't even been to visit any dangerous creatures. I hadn't summoned so much as a pixie in weeks.

"You can't bring that in here! You can't _have_ that! Harry, there are some things which humans are _not meant to meddle in_."

"You know, if you could just tell me clearly what's got you so riled, maybe I could do something about it," I said as patiently as I could manage, setting down my armful of papers and carefully depositing the oh-so-special rock on top of them.

"That _egg_!" Bob exclaimed. "Harry, you don't understand what could happen if you stay close to something like that."

I sighed. Bob could get agitated sometimes, but rarely was he this insistent. "What egg? I haven't been shopping in nearly a week-"

"The giant blue _dragon egg_ you're using as a paperweight, Harry! You need to get rid of it. _Now_."

"I can't, I promised the elf queen I'd protect it." I gave the stone a dubious look. "Dragon egg, you say?"

"Yes, Harry," Bob said, giving a clear impression of gritted teeth despite his own being quite non-mobile. "And I can feel its hunger from here. If you don't get rid of it, right away, you're really going to regret it."

I eyed the stone with increasing concern. I hate walking ignorantly into danger. "Is there any way to secure it somehow? Make it safe?"

" _No_ , because that would involve using _your power_ in close contact with it, which happens to be just what it wants."

"So, using it as the focus in a finding spell would be a bad idea?"

"Yes, Harry," Bob said with exaggerated patience. "Using any of your magic anywhere near that thing would be a very, _very_ bad idea."

"But, it's the only lead I have."

"Fine, ignore me. Just wait, two weeks from now you'll be begging me. Begging, on your knees, for me to get you out of the mess you're about to get yourself into."

I chuckled, though somewhat nervously. "I don't beg, Bob."

"You will," the skull said, his tone one of dire prediction.

"No, I won't," I retorted, but only out of habit. I stared at the stone, at the dragon egg.

I didn't know much about dragons, and the stories I did hear varied. Anything from cute cuddly little destruction monsters the size of cars, to personifications of forces capable of building and destroying worlds at a whim. Like elves, I had only heard of dragons, but what I had heard was enough to scare me.

If Bob was right about what it was, and there was no reason to believe he'd be wrong, then I had just gotten myself in way, _way_ over my head.

"Dragons, they're just big magic lizards, right?" I asked, more out of hope than any real conviction.

Bob snorted with derision. "Yeah. And I'm just a glowing skull."

Lovely.

"How bad are we talking?"

"Let me put it this way. How attached are you to this building? This block, the blocks adjacent? Or, really, this half of the city?"

I gulped audibly. "Darn it, Bob. Why can't you tell me these things _before_ I jump into them headfirst?"

"I could spend the next hundred years teaching you things to avoid, and you'd still find something I hadn't gotten around to warning you about to stick your nose into."

I wanted to argue, but the sad thing was. . .he was probably right.

"Well, what can I do about it then? It's my only lead on the princess I'm supposed to be tracking down. Unless you know something about Galbatorix."

The name slithered from my lips, heavy and drawn, and I felt almost as though the act of speaking it had invoked some deeper magic just outside my comprehension. I had the distinct feeling that I'd made a mistake in saying it aloud.

Bob gave a distinct impression of shrugging. "Never heard of him."

"Then we _have_ to use the egg. If Arya really is a captive, there's no other choice."

"You could throw it away and pretend this never happened," Bob suggested.

"I could," I said, but we both knew I wouldn't.

Bob sighed. "Alright, if we're going to do this, at least let me help. A potion would be safer than direct thaumaturgy, your power more diluted. But I still believe you'll regret this."

"I already do," I mumbled.

Bob was, for once, gracious enough not to gloat.

"Alright, then. Let's get to work."

* * *

Potions are a tricky enough thing under normal circumstances, combining myriad disparate elements into magical goo which is infused with extraordinary powers - in a one-time-use kind of way. Most potions are drunk or poured over an item, this one obviously would be the latter. The potion was unique, as all are, comprised of various elements around the lab and a good dose of my own directed will.

This last ingredient was clearly the sticking point, but I knew of no way around it. One way or another, the only way I could work magic was, well, for me to _work magic_.

Still, I stood a long time holding the finished potion, reluctant to approach the egg. It still sat atop my notes on the case, minimal though they were; I hadn't gone near the thing more than I had to.

"Well, Harry? Are you going to do this?"

I nodded. "Yep. Going to do this."

I stood another long moment, potion in hand, staring at the egg.

"The potency of the potion isn't going to increase if you wait."

"I _know_ that, Bob. Give me a minute."

"You've had several."

"Give me _another_ minute."

"You don't have to do this."

"I _do_."

I took several deep breaths, psyching myself up for this, then took a step - more of a lunge, really - toward the egg. I dumped half the potion unceremoniously over its surface, probably a little more than half given my haste, then backed away and immediately poured the rest over a map of the country I'd laid out on the floor.

The potion bubbled and hissed, dissipating into mist. I waited, watched as it faded from all but one spot.

Less than twenty miles outside Chicago, in the forest to the west.

"Right under my nose," I whispered. "Right. Bob, keep that egg safe. We need to return it to the elf queen intact."

"And where are you going?"

I smiled, throwing my duster over my shoulders dramatically as I strode toward the door.

"I'm going to save a princess."

* * *

 _Author's Notes : _

_Magics may have been altered to fit the combined universe. Characters may have been altered or removed. (For instance, at present I have no plans for Eragon to exist.)_

 _This is not a major project. This is not an active project. This is a scene that wouldn't leave me alone, but I don't plan to continue this anytime soon. I have too many active projects already and cannot commit to another just yet. That said, I think this could be an extremely interesting fusion, and I'll probably want to write more for it someday. In a few years maybe. Not now. I'm very busy now. Unless I'm inspired tomorrow. But no promises. Probably not for a while.  
_

 _I'm new to the_ _Dresden Files_ _and currently listening to the_ _series_ _in audio form, so any names are spelled as I imagine them; if I guessed wrong, please tell me and I'll correct them. I've only reached as far as Summer Knight so far; if there are existing elves which appear later in Dresden-canon, they may or may not be replaced with the Inheritance-ish version depending on how well they fit with my conceit of this fusion._

 _As always, thanks for reading! I'd love to hear what you think, positive or negative._


	2. Chapter 2

I collected my staff and blasting rod on my way out, as well as a bag I kept packed with the usual wizardly accoutrements - salt, chalk, cold iron, candles, anti-venom in case of vampires, etc.

Despite my confident affect, I felt woefully unprepared. Normally, I'd have hunted down every scrap of intel I could gather from my various contacts, and laid a somewhat more careful plan of approach. The whole charge-in-magic-blazing thing hadn't worked out very well for me in the past.

But if there's one thing that gets to me every time, it's an innocent girl in grave danger. Sometimes, taking the time to plan and prepare is too much time. The fact was, none of my contacts knew anything about this. Elves had kept themselves and their affairs to themselves long enough that they were only a step up from myth. I knew about their existence, but that wasn't nearly enough.

And whoever this Galbatorix was, he had some serious power on his side. The kind of strength it takes to make your very name resonate when spoken, despite being miles away from the speaker - well, I'd never heard of it being done.

My plan, such as it was, involved carefully scoping out the general vicinity of the captive princess, and only making my frontal assault if it seemed viable. There was a good chance I'd need to retreat and look for reinforcements. I had a good number of contacts I could call upon if need be, but I really hated dragging anyone else into my problems unless I really had to. My problems had a way of getting people hurt.

I pulled off the main road onto an access road that led into the forest where the map had shown Arya's location. The blue beetle - not that much of it was still blue any longer - stuttered and coughed in protest as I slowed down and cast my wizardly senses out to try and detect any traces of magic in the area.

Nothing yet. I drove on, creeping along the road and begrudging my car's every sound. I kept expecting to be jumped by something big, dangerous, angry, or all of the above. I still sensed nothing, which was starting to make me _more_ anxious, not less.

Finally, I judged that I was as near the spot as I could reach by following the road. I pulled the bug off onto the shoulder, where it rumbled irritably and seemed to catch a few times before shutting off.

Wizards and technology don't exactly mix. I should probably have waited until I was well clear of my car to start reaching out for traces of magic, but I don't always plan these things in advance. Sometimes, instinct just takes over.

I patted the car's hood to apologize for my carelessness, then set out into the woods. I moved slowly, wishing the trees were older and thicker. If I had to duck out of sight behind one of these, the chances of it actually hiding me were minimal. The ground cover was equally sparse, unlikely to provide sufficient concealment.

Sometimes you can't pick your battleground. For me, that meant nearly always. I had the worst luck.

This time though, the woods were quiet. Full of the usual foresty sounds and nothing unusual. If I didn't know that either an evil cult or a secret enclave of elves lived here, I'd have considered it a perfectly normal place. Of course, in my experience, normal only lasted as long as it took someone to decide blasting everyone in sight was a good idea. And usually I was a prime target of such blasting.

 _Think positive, Harry. Maybe the girl is fine. And it's quite possible this isn't an elaborate trap.  
_

I wished I could have brought the stone - egg? - as focus for my location spell. But Bob had rarely been so emphatic about anything as that I should spend as little time in its presence as possible, so I had only the spot of potion on the map indicating where she'd been a half hour before. I had to trust she hadn't moved far, or this probably foolhardy expedition would go nowhere.

I crept forward through the trees, staff held ready, shield bracelet cool against my wrist. I expected at any moment to come upon an enemy or threat. I did not anticipate stumbling straight through a veil and face-first into the side of a big freakin' stone wall. I fell back, my face and staff hand throbbing from the impact, and that single step was enough to move me outside the veil. I muttered under my breath and carefully prodded my nose. It hurt, but not as badly as it would have if I'd been walking quickly, and wasn't broken. That's something to be grateful for.

I stepped forward slowly, and the wall appeared before me only when my foot was mere inches away. It made sense, I suppose, keeping the veil close to the building would limit the size and power requirements, but still. Hiding a whole building like that. . . and have I mentioned how _big_ the structure was? It was basically a castle, just sitting in the woods, complete with freakin' ramparts and a tower.

I stared up at it, mentally measuring the height against the width, and decided it was probably about three stories high and easily wider than my whole apartment building. And I had no way of knowing just what kind of spells I may have tripped on the way in. The veil was one thing, but who in their right minds would make a building invisible and not throw in some kinds of detection webs to prevent unexpected visitors from slipping in unnoticed?

So, castle. Too high to climb, even with a magic-assisted jump I couldn't reach the top. Too solid to break down - my blasting rod focused my evocation magic, but even that wasn't sufficient to burn through this much stone. No windows in sight, or door either, but there would have to be a way in somewhere.

I hurried along the side of the wall, hoping to reach the entrance before whoever lived here decided to come see who was wandering around their yard. The next side I checked had a forbidding tower looming at its center, but no doors, and the only windows were barely slits. Definitely not big enough to slip in, even if I weren't such a tall guy.

It was only as I rounded the third corner that I realized I hadn't heard any sound from inside the castle wall. The forest sounds continued unabated outside, but from within I'd heard nothing. No doors, no voices, no clatter of feet. But it couldn't be abandoned, not with an active veil on it. Was no one home?

The third side contained a door. Well, I say door, it was really more of a massive freakin' archway, with doors big enough you could fit a highway through 'em. And they were locked, and warded. And when I say they were warded, I don't mean like my house. Not the kind of spells that keep out intruders and zap anyone trying to break in. No, these were wards built to withstand a determined and prolonged assault. I could throw everything I had against them for hours and still not break through.

So much for Plan A. I returned to the back wall, mentally reaching out to probe the area, and stopped flat. My probe found something alright, something I hadn't ever encountered before. Something so dark, so twisted, so inhumanly _evil_ that it took my breath away. How had I not sensed it before?

But the force was tightly contained, restrained within itself. It wasn't broadcasting itself or its power. If I hadn't happened to probe the exact spot where it stood, I'd have never noticed. It remained motionless, somewhere within the walls of the castle, quietly exuding a sense of depravity and horrible desire that twisted my stomach just to contemplate.

Then I sensed the object of its attention. There was no mistaking the signature, it was Islanzadi's daughter or I was a kitten. Their magical being resonated in the same way, though Arya's was slightly quicker and less regular than her mother's.

I detected no wards, no barriers aside from the veil, and no other beings anywhere near the castle. It was just me, the dark and evil being of unknown power and ability, and one helpless captive elvish princess.

Heaven help me, I knew better than to charge in alone. But sometimes, knowing better doesn't change what you've gotta do.

I found a tree of roughly the same height as the tower, climbed just high enough to have a reasonable chance at the top of the castle walls, and stared across the too-wide gap between myself and the wall. The _invisible_ wall on the other side of a veil, that I could only barely sense even this close.

"Harry Dresden, you're a complete idiot sometimes," I muttered to myself, then turned around and held my staff in both hands, pointing at my own chest. "This is not going to be fun."

I took a breath, wondering briefly if I would ever in my life have time to establish a careful plan of attack which would obviate the need to rush in blind, and decided that fate or God or whatever was in charge of my life would probably take the utmost care to prevent such an occurrence.

" _Fozare!_ " I called out, with as much will as I could muster. Raw unseen kinetic force blasted out from my staff, hitting me in the chest and throwing me backward from the tree.

See, there's this useful thing about magical force. It doesn't pay any attention to that old 'equal and opposite reaction' rule, so there's no kick when shoving bad guys off cliffs or back from my face. And it also means that my staff doubles as a quick and dirty jump assist, at the expense of considerable effort and concentration. It would be of limited use in a combat situation, the concentration and coordination required would be better spent in fighting back. But when my goal was to jump from a tree onto a wall and not fall to the ground in a splatter, it came in pretty freakin' handy.

I alighted dextrously on the wall. Okay, maybe I actually landed too far to the edge, scraping one leg viciously against the stone as I scrambled desperately not to fall off and to my death. Though given my luck, it seemed more likely to lead to several broken bones and just enough paralysis to make me easy pickings for whatever dark power had kidnapped an elf queen's daughter. But I arrived on the wall in one piece, which ought to count for something. Dextrous or no.

The dark and sinister being remained unmoving, and it was really starting to freak me out. It had made no move toward its prisoner, nor any acknowledgment of me. Normally, I like not being noticed by big scary evil things, but I couldn't bring myself to believe that it really hadn't _noticed_ me. Which meant this was probably some variation of a trap.

But what could I do? It's not like I was going to back out now. It's one thing to hear about a princess in distress - literal princess! I haven't saved many of those - and another to stand this close and turn away.

"One of these days. . ." I muttered to myself as I wrapped my bleeding leg with one of the several cloth bandages I'd taken to carrying in my bag of essential wizard equipment. It wasn't a dangerous wound, but any amount of bleeding is too much if one has to move fast. And I especially didn't want to leave any blood in an enemy stronghold. Nasty baddies could do a lot of even nastier things to me if they had my blood to work with.

That done, I hurried along the wall until reaching the tower. It had a stair down leading to a small door. Thankfully, the door wasn't either locked or warded. I pushed it open and paused long enough to take stock of my new surroundings.

The castle was fairly ordinary. Centered amid flat grounds which could have been planted with hedges or ornamental flowerbeds, but which instead resembled nothing so much as the early arrival of autumn. The grass looked drier and less vibrant than that outside, the weeds brittle and brown. It was a wild tangle as well, unkept, and lent the whole area an abandoned air.

The wall's outer gates were just as impressive from inside as outside, both physically and magically. They may be designed to keep strangers out, but they would sure keep people in too. The tower bothered me, more for its seeming pointlessness than anything particular about it, but for now I had more important things to worry abut.

I gave the place another quick scan for magical mojo and found once again nothing but myself, the gate, and the two people inside. Though that dark stillness that was nothing but darkness and evil probably didn't deserve to be called a person.

As though in answer to my thought, it moved. And in the same instant, the castle's front door swung open. Not the outer gate, the inner door to the building itself.

"If you seek to enter, fool mortal, do not let me stop you."

"Hell's bells," I grumbled. The probability of this being a trap had just gone up significantly. I checked my shield bracelet, not that it would be much use against something this powerful, and took my blasting rod in my other hand.

"Have fun stormin' the castle," I muttered to myself, then strode forward through the door my adversary had so kindly opened for me.


End file.
